Michelle Yeoh’s portrayal of Philipa Georgiou on Star Trek: Discovery has been one of he most wonderfully entertaining characters in the history of the medium.

Yet from the moment that Michael Burnham saved “Her Most Imperial Majesty, Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Dominus of Qo’noS, Regina Andor, Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centarius,” from Lorca’s forces in season one, and took her back with the crew to the prime universe,  Discovery has had to morally square having a homicidal, genocidal, sociopathic dictator slingshotting  back and forth across  Federation space aboard Starfleet vessels and getting the best one liners from the writer’s room.

For a show whose most toxic fans insist that Discovery isn’t, can’t be, canon, Georgiou was just more salt in the wound and proof that this is not Star Trek. Georgiou would never have even been entertained as a regular cast member in any iteration that creator Gene Rodenberry oversaw.

But then again, he forbade character conflicts on the show. Humanity he insisted, had evolved.

But we should remember why we love Star Trek, because in all of its iterations it’s the aspirational and transformational qualities of Star Trek that remain a constant. So much so that even a sociopathic emperor couldn’t help but be changed by the ideals of Starfleet and the Federation.

And so Georgiou has evolved.

In season two she is given the cover of operating within Section 31 where her particular skillset was more aligned with the ethos of black ops rather than Starfleet.

And in season three, she became a superhero of sorts, until she starts dying.

The mysterious illness that is killing Phillipa turns out to be a horrifying byproduct of physics and one of the calamitous effects of time travel. Kovich, the mysterious and creepy Starfleet official, played sublimely by David Cronenberg, relays to Dr. Culber that although Georgiou is presenting with physiological symptoms, the cure won’t be found aboard Discovery or even in this galaxy.

Kovich then tells Dr. Culber that during the Temporal Wars, “Among the many horrible things we discovered when weaponizing time is temporal travel can make you pretty sick. Turns out our molecules are designed to function in the time in which they were created.”

Before Georgiou, a Starfleet Time Soldier named Yor, Kovich says, “was the only individual known to have both had traveled across both time and dimensions.”

Having traversed from both the parallel universe of the Terran Empire and then traveled a thousand years in the future has left her body physically tearing itself apart, “Every molecule in her being,” Kovich says “fights to either go back in time or jump a cosmic divide.”

Who should help them? Well, the growingly sentient USS Discovery computer—infused with ancient sphere data and centuries of Starfleet databases—says there is a remote chance for a cure on the remote planet Dannus V where the two of them encounter The Guardian of Forever.

But he’s going by the name Carl now.

The Guardian of Forever is a time portal first seen in perhaps the most famous — and most beloved — classic Harlan Ellison-penned Star Trek episode, “The City on the Edge of Forever.”

Above: Captain Kirk and Spock in a  scene from “The City on the Edge of Forever”, Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1, Episode 28. Directed by: Joseph Pevney Written by: Harlon Ellison Original air date: 6^th April 1967

When the talking stone portal was asked by Kirk and Spock if it was a machine or a being it answered cryptically, saying it was “both and neither,” revealing it was created billions of years prior as “a gateway to other times and dimensions.”

When Dr. McCoy—crazed due to an accidental drug overdose—jumps through the portal into the past the USS Enterprise disappears. Kirk and Spock follow him, jumping to a time before he arrived in 1930s America to stop him from altering the timeline.

Things tie in to “City on the Edge of Forever,” even more when you look at the back of Carl’s paper, which has an ad for the “Good Soup!” at the 21st Street Mission, the soup kitchen run by Edith Keeler (famously played by Joan Collins), the pivotal character in “City on the Edge of Forever.” There is even what looks like a possible drawing of Keeler, next to the words “Let Me Help!” something she said to Kirk and he replied “Let me help. A hundred years or so from now, I believe, a famous novelist will write a classic using that theme. He’ll recommend those three words even over I love you.”

The resolution in “City on the Edge of Forever” is to restore the original timeline in which Edith Keeler dies, which became more difficult after Kirk fell in love with Keeler. Spock lays the choice facing Kirk out starkly, saying: “Save her, do as your heart tells you to do, and millions will die who did not die before.” In “Terra Firma, Part 1” Michael is only allowed to go on the mission after answering Admiral Vance’s question, “Will you really be able to let her go when it comes down to it?” As things in Discovery always come back to Michael, the key to this two-parter appears to come to if Michael can let go of Georgiou, like Kirk had to let go of Edith Keeler.

“I’m, uh… I’m Carl.”– Guardian of Forever introducing himself to Michael Burnham and Philippa Georgiou, 3189 (“Terra Firma, Part 1“)

Now hiding on a distant planet — different from the one Spock and Kirk visited due to being used as weapon during the Temporal Wars — the Guardian offers its services to help take Georgiou to a new time and place.

In part one, Phillipa steps through the innocuous seeming door and steps back into the past. In particular the past of the 23rd century Terran Empire in the Mirror Universe.

Phillipa realizes the opportunity to seize control. She recognizes the It’s a Wonderful Life opportunity that she’s been offered and is certain that if she can change than she can change the course of the Empire, or at the very least, be the catalyst for her daughter Captain Michael Burnham to change, to truly love her and ultimately herself.

But Terran Michael Burnham proves to be a morally bankrupt and irredeemable sociopath. In fact Captain Burnham is even more terrifying than the Emperor Georgiou we first met. The destruction and terror that Terran Michael leaves in her wake is beyond the pale of even “evil” Georgiou’s previous pernicious power and purview.

Georgiou does however manage to change the fate of the unnamed Kelpian who is Saru’s counterpart, and tell him that Vahar’ai does not mean death. When “Mirror Saru” flares with anger at the injustice at the early deaths of every Kelpian he has ever known, Georgiou stops him. “Survive,” she says, “That is how you honor them. Teach others what you know. That is how you avenge them.”

The story of “Terra Firma” (Parts 1&2 are essentially a long episode)’ initially felt like a detour from where the show has been going this season and incongruous to the mystery of “The Burn” that has been the driving plot of season three. There is also the fact that Yeoh has already signed on to star in a Section 31 spin-off, which is why this was a masterful piece of storytelling. Whatever Georgiou has evolved into, she will no longer be the Emperor of old, spitting pithy and hysterical scene stealing one liners, so in a way, Georgiou gets a wonderfully fulfilling finale no matter where she ends up.

It’s also a wonderful showcase for Yeoh’s incredible acting prowess and yes, you will cry.

Phillipa’s time back in the Terran universe was an opportunity for her to be judged.

 

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Upon waking up back on Dannus V, where only a minute has passed for Michael, for Georgiou, it was three months. She then begins to tear apart again. She stares at The Guardian and screams, “Why am I still  dying?!””

“You weren’t sent back to be cured,” he responds, “You  were sent to be weighed.”

“Weighed?” Michael responds.

“Tested, to see if this time she’d make different choices. To see if this time here changed her at all.” He then looks at Georgiou. “You’re a tricky case Phillipa. You don’t belong here, now. But to send you somewhere else might cause just as many problems. So you had to be weighed. To figure out your course.”

Phillipa is convinced that she’s failed whatever test this is, after all she ended up killing her daughter again and the Empire is in decline.

Carl responds, “But this time you tried for peace, and you saved a Kelpian, and you didn’t have to do that. And he’ll save others, a lot of them.”

Carl then opens the portal.  “No!” Phillipa says,  “I won’t return to Terra.”

“Who said anything about sending you there? I am going to send you back to a time When the mirror universe and the prime universe were more aligned, that’s so you won’t fall apart, atomically speaking. Consider yourself lucky, you’re getting a second shot, I mean that’s pretty unique.”

Phillipa asks if Michael can come and Carl says no, “This Michael Burnham is right where she needs to be.”

As she looks at the gate, Michael grabs her, “Phillipa, listen.”

“No, you listen. I said you sentenced me to death when you brought me to this universe. In truth the greater part of me was already dead. You gave me a new life. And the rest of your crew isn’t so bad either. I have seen that some endings are inevitable. Mine, Captain Burnham’s, perhaps your Phillipa was destined for her end as well…”

“You are my Phillipa.” Michael says.

“Michael…” Phillipa shakes her head.

“What I mean is that what I feel for you, belongs to you. No one else.”

Phillipa looks lovingly at Michael, “I will never find another like you.”

As she steps towards the portal, she turns around and says, “This era is different. More Terran than where you came from. Saru has navigated Discovery admirably, but he’s not the only one suited for the captain’s chair. You have always been far greater than you can imagine Michael.”

“So have you Phillipa.”

The women look at each other and offer their respective cultural ceremonial goodbyes. For Michael, it’s Vulcan, “Live, long, and prosper,” and for Phillipa, the Terran salute.

It’s a powerful moment and ultimately a testament to the ideals Rodenberry aspired to when he envisioned the future.

It can change and we can evolve.

Watch Jessie Gender’s recap below where she discusses the episodes’ slightly problematic wrench in the plot, given the season’s story arc.

And after that  catch the latest The Ready Room recap hosted by Will Wheaton and featuring an exclusive interview with Yeoh.

Star Trek: Discovery | “Terra Firma, Part 2” (S3, E10) Recap | The Ready Room “Star Michelle Yeoh (Emperor Georgiou) joins host Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation) this week to spill on how she’s brought her shrewd and intimidating character to life. Commenting on the amazing stuntwork, commanding costumes, and her deep love for the Terran ruler, Yeoh shares her thoughts on Georgiou’s past and future.